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INORGANIC FOECES 



ORDAINED TO SUPERSEDE 



HUMAN SLAVERY. 



BY THOMAS EWBANK, 

AUTHOR OF "HYDRAULICS AND MECHANICS," "THE WORLD A 

WORKSHOP," "THOUGHTS ON MATTER AND 

FORCE," ETC. 





[Originally read before the American Ethnological Society.] 



N E W YORK: 

WILLIAM EVERDELL & SONS, 104 FULTON STREET. 

1860. 



4M 



j^, jy/Zs- 



Enteeed, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty, 

By WILLIAM EVERDELL & SONS, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District 

of New York. 



1 



INORGANIC FORCES, ETC. 



This Essay consists of 

I. Thoughts on Slavery irrespective of its political and moral 
relations, and 

II. On the plenitude of the earth's store of cheap inorganic forces 
for superseding it, and meeting at every stage of progres- 
sive civilization fresh demands for agricultural and me- 
chanical motors. 



It may safely be averred that most contentions, political, relig- 
ious, social and civil, arise from contracted ideas of the present con- 
dition of things, and from isolating them too much. By looking 
beyond them, we should perceive that existing evils are incidental 
to progress, and doomed to disappear as society advances. It is 
microscopic views of the conflicting scenes of life that lead the mel- 
ancholy to mourn over them, and sometimes to wonder how provi- 
dence can permit them. 

Of all subjects of discussion, it is not easy to name one to which 
moral, scientific or philanthropic sagacity can be more profitably 
directed than that of human labor, or to a more exciting one at pres- 
ent than that of forced labor. Passing by its current evils, Negro 



4 ON SLAVERY IRRESPECTIVE OF 

Slavery must be considered either an artificial excrescence on the 
face of society, or a result of natural laws. If the former, it may 
and ought to be suppressed ; if the latter, it exists independently 
of its abuses and can only be removed in accordance with Nature's 
arrangements for that purpose — if such she has made. 

Slavery among the Greeks and Romans, and their predecessors 
and successors, was widely different from what it is in America. It 
was chiefly the enthralment of men of their own race, while with us 
it consists in the subjugation of an inferior and foreign one. Among 
the first nations of old, demands for labor appear to have been ade- 
quately met by natives ef the soil, and hence negro slaves were 
comparatively very few ; so few that they were in no wise distin- 
guished by either discipline or laws from white helots. But an- 
other state of things was revealed in the discovery of America, and 
one unexampled in the history of the East. Here, a hemisphere 
was suddenly opened to human enterprise, without a predial popu- 
lation, for the Indians preferred extermination to subjection to sys- 
tematic labor ; and they still prefer it through every latitude, the 
few meagre exceptions having no sensible effect in arresting their 
progressive, and it is to be feared their utter extinction. 

Everything that lives has to labor for its living. Bodily strength 
or power, adapted to the diverse conditions of life, is a natural 
necessity, which we have in common with the brutes ; but a radical 
difference exists between them and us in this, that while they need 
no more than as individuals they inherit, we require additional quan- 
tities from external sources to meet exigencies of social and civil life. 
To work, is therefore man's destiny, to call in other forces to assist 
him, his privilege. But for this he had been made stronger, or the 
work required of him had been less. From the general character 
and diversity of animals he can press only a few into his service. 
At the most, we derive but an inappreciably small fraction of the 
muscular energy hourly expended by the earth's living tribes. 
From the leviathans of the ocean we obtain none, nor from the strong- 
est of birds, nor from the vigorous of carnivera among quadr ipeds. 



ITS POLITICAL AND MORAL RELATIONS. 5 

The ox is worked but little, and in some countries not at all, the ass 
and mule are good slaves in their way, but the horse is mostly 
relied on in the temperate and cooler zones, and even there the 
expense of keeping him prevents many from employing him. 

As a general principle the cost will always determine the chief 
labor employed. The cheapest and most accessible will be most in 
demand. It was because intelligence in human toilers enabled 
them to do work which animals could not perform, except through 
the medium of mechanism, that the enslavement of the more easily 
subdued quadrupeds was followed by that of the least resisting por- 
tion of our own species. It is so still. 

To observing minds the thought can scarcely avoid occurring, 
that, in a matter so widely affecting the Creator's administration of 
the world, as human vassalage, provision must have been made for 
its incorporation into the system, if it be, what its upholders insist, 
of divine origin, and that nothing more is needed to settle the dis- 
quieting topic, than to determine this point. But upon it the posi- 
tions of the disputants are opposite as the poles, so that the ques- 
tions, Is the principle of negro bondage sanctioned by nature ? If 
yea, what is to be its duration ? Its terrestrial boundaries ? And 
the social and civil regulations that should govern it ? — are yet to be 
settled. 

There is much uncertainty, not to say indifference, respecting the 
laws that govern the affairs of the world. Few suspect that the 
great movements of our species are as much subject to them, as 
those of the inferior creatures. To partial observers, every thing 
appears at sixes and sevens — a mighty maze without a plan ; as if 
the Earth, after being fitted for, and stocked with, inhabitants, was 
left without constitutional and conservative provisions — an idea 
which can only enter the heads of those who, like ants, look not 
beyond their own little hillocks and movements — or those who imag- 
ine the earth consists of conglomerate masses thrown together with- 
out order or systematic arrangement. 

For lack of a better acquaintance with the subject, we may be 



6 ON SLAVERY IRRESPECTIVE OF 

mistaken in thinking the primary cause of slavery has been some- 
what avoided, and that matters outside of its acknowledged rela- 
tions have been overlooked, which have a potent influence over it. 
Human thraldom is not a thing of yesterday. The world has been 
accustomed to it from the beginning. Dating from ages anterior 
to written history, and in vogue among all people, it has become a 
kind of second nature, if it be not a natural institution. At all 
events, nature, or if you please the science of nature, must be con- 
sulted about its abolition, as well as international law and the deca- 
logue, for it certainly is as much a question of natural philosophy 
as of moral and political economy, Scheme, and quarrel, and 
fight about it as much as we please, it can only be permanently 
settled in accordance with principles independent of Party and 
even of national sympathies and antipathies. 

The dictum, acceptable to many, that " negro slavery is just and 
beneficent'' should have been qualified. As a general principle 
it sanctions the introduction of slave labor to wherever its advocates 
may choose to carry it, and it urges its extension, for if it be just 
to establish it, it is wrong to neglect it, and criminal to abolish it. 
Then, if it is not to be dispensed with at present, what of the 
future ? As demands for labor inevitably become more pressing 
as society improves, the slave trade, if nothing intervene, must 
increase and keep increasing, for it is folly to hope that under such 
circumstances either political or moral influences can arrest it — 
not even if they were, as they are not, uniformly opposed to it. 
The prospect of its extinction would seem therefore hopeless, for, 
supposing the earth's wild lands eventually brought under cultiva- 
tion, the same number of laborers would be wanted to keep them in 
cultivation. 

In the warmer regions especially, it is contended that negro 
slavery can never cease, for if cotton, and sugar, and other staples 
of the tropics should lose their importance in the markets of the 
world, other products will succeed them equally requiring the 
forced labor of blacks. Indeed, the perpetuation of slavery in one 



ITS POLITICAL AND MOEAL RELATIONS. 7 

form or another is inferrable from the writings of naturalists. Trac- 
ing it to diversities of physical and mental structure, in connexion 
with an universal instinct of the strong to subjugate the weak, and 
perceiving no indications that nature contemplates any change in 
these respects, the conclusion with them is that the effects will be / 
as enduring as the cause. 

This leaves the negro not a glimpse of hope in the ages or epochs 
to come. It limits neither the range nor the direction of his thral- 
dom. If such be really his fate, he is to be pitied, subject too, as 
he must be, to the shackles and lash. Called in to overcome natu- 
ral habits and instincts, these will be deemed as requisite in the 
future as in the present, for that which is innate in the race is not 
to be extirpated by external appliances to individuals. 

Natural justice teaches us that negro slavery if just and benefi- 
cent anywhere, can only be so in climes congenial to negro consti- 
tutions, and where the labor is not destructive of health, nor in 
amount preternaturally exhaustive of life, nor enforced under rules 
prohibitive of mental improvement. No system can be a right one 
that does not recognize and treat them as men, however low in the 
scale of humanity masses of them may be. 

Nature is the exponent of the deity. Let us therefore con- 
sult her. Unless we greatly misunderstand her, she assents to 
what follows : — 

The earth was designed for a working establishment — a scene of 
varied and ceaseless activities. It is a plantation to be put in and 
preserved in fruitful condition, and a factory of miscellaneous 
things, to be kept going, with facilities to circulate both products 
and goods. The basis of the popular triad — Agriculture, Manufac- 
tures and Commerce. 

The prosperity of the establishment as a whole depends on the 
extent to which these departments are cultivated. Every section 
thrives as it fosters one or more of them, and degenerates as it 
neglects them. 

As the work requires a constant outlay of forces, adapted to 



O ON SLAVERY IRRESPECTIVE OF 

meet innumerable exigencies and contingencies in each department, 
a series of them is provided, beginning with human power, that by 
the use of it experience may be had to manage others. The great 
business of man as the head or lessee of the establishment may be 
resolved into the proper selection and employment of these. 

Work so diverse in its nature, minute in its details and compre- 
hensive in its relations, requires diversities in the characters and 
capacities of the workmen, and these are also provided by a law of 
the earth's organization. She is variously constituted. Her cli- 
mates and products differ extremely between the equator and the 
poles, her vegetable and living products, being adapted to influences 
to which they are indigenous. We all know how heat and moisture 
vary with geographical position, and how they affect man's muscu- 
lar strength, hence to meet this and other exigencies — 
/ Mankind is made up of races that vary in physical and mental 
structure, to accord with the diverse conditions of the earth's great 
sections, each constituted to flourish best in climates akin to its 
native one. Uniformity of race can only agree with an uniform 
earth, and therefore diversities of races must be as lasting as the 
varied constitution of the earth. 

Unity pervades creation, not less in its parts than as a whole. 
The, various countries form one earth, and the diverse races of 
men one species. 

Of the number of races naturalists are not agreed, nor yet of 
the smaller divisions. Instead of presenting a constant and uni- 
form character, each consists of a group of varieties or families, 
ordained to meet the minor geographical and physical conditions of 
their primary locations. Linnaeus divided the species into five races, 
Buffon into six, Cuvier into three. Others have run the number 
up to fifteen. Dr. Pickering, of the U. S. Exploring Expedition, 
makes it at least eleven. The classification commonly accepted 
enumerates five races and twenty-two families. It is sufficient for 
our purpose. 



ITS rOLITICAL AND MORAL RELATIONS. 9 

The Caucasian — or white race, containing the Caucasian, Celtic. 
Germanic, Arabian, Libyan, Nilotic and Indostanic families. 

The Mongolian, — the Chinese, Indo-Chinese, Polar, Mon^ol-Tar- 
tar and the Turkish families. 

The Malay — Malay and Polynesian Families. 

The American — American and Toltican Families. 

The Ethiopian — Negro, Caffrarian, Hottentot, Australian, Alfor- 
ian and the Oceanic-Negro Families. 

Incertitude about the number of races and sub-races arises from 
the difficulty of ascertaining where one commences and terminates. 
There are no abrupt beginnings and endings in nature. Gradation 
by imperceptible degrees is a general rule, while the range open 
to our perceptions is, in all things, very limited. It is only when 
the changes become palpable that we acknowledge them. The or- 
ders, classes, families and other divisions of plants and animals may 
be obviously distinct — as much so as colors in the prism, and yet 
the precise lines where they join are no more to be detected than 
those of the prism. So it is with our own species. The difference 
between the races most apart every one perceives, but not where 
one blends into another. 

Diversity of races was necessary to the dispersion of man over' 
the establishment, and to give him full possession of it. But for 
them, the greater part would have remained unknown, and its re- 
sources been lost. As rivers and their tributaries are requisite to 
fertilize the earth, so are races and sub-races to people and improve 
it. One river cannot water it, nor one people occupy it. 

As with animals, one race cannot perform the functions of the - 
others. If it could, there had beeu no need of the others. 

As already observed, congenial locations are assigned to each, ' 
beyond which emigrants will be aliens. Within certain parallels 
the white race will always flourish most, and so with the negro and 
intermediate races. The people of Europe would never exchange 
it for Africa, nor those of India barter it for Lapland or Canada. 
Thus, while every race has its appropriate work to do, it has the 
most eligible place to do it in. 



10 OX SLAVERY IRRESPECTIVE OF 

This arrangement does not imply, as might hastily be inferred, 
that each race should be confined within its original boundaries, be- 
cause there are, and have ever been, vast regions in congenial cli- 
mates, lying waste for lack of cultivators. But independent of that, 
emigration is an active and indispensable element in the economy 
of the planet. Things would stagnate upon it, were it not for the 
circulation of its occupants. Its surface, like that of the ocean, is 
designed to be agitated and crossed by living streams and currents, 
of varied and ever varying velocities. Voluntary emigrations have 
always obtained, and are now proceeding on scales perhaps not 
larger than those vast involuntary removals which characterized the 
policy of the conquerors of old — showing that the most conflicting 
of human acts and influences do not interrupt the progress of nat- 
ural laws. Vegetable and animal products differ in different coun- 
tries, so that what one people lacks another can supply, and thus is 
established a universal and perpetual incitement to travel and com- 
mercial exchanges. 

( Though perfectly balanced, the professional relations between the 

races have hardly been explained. Perhaps it is too soon for that. 

But that each has its assigned task in erecting, supporting and 

enriching the great social structure, there is no doubt. That which 

N is to extend over all is to be the work of all. 

To carry on the work to the best advantage, one race is designed 
to be foremen to the others. This is one of the results and pur- 
poses of inequality in them. There can be no progress anywhere, 
or in anything, without external elements to start and maintain it. 
Every movement to be general must first be partial, and to be effec- 
tual it must be gradual. " Throughout the visible universe an uni- 
versal order and gradation in the sensual and mental faculties is 
observed, which causes a subordination of creature to creature " — 
and man to man. Every institution must have its managers, every 
ship its officers, every society its teachers, every army its leaders. 

The white race is the leading one. The others are stationary, 
and always have been, where its influence has not reached them. 



ITS POLITICAL AND MOKAL DELATIONS. 11 

When would civilization have come if its rise and progress had 
been given in charge to any of them, and could it have ever come 
had it depended on the lowest ? The idea of progress is peculiar 
to the Pioneer race. In this matter the world is a Lancasterian 
school, in which the highest class furnishes instructors and monitors 
for the lower ones. 

The natural order of the races is indicated by the features, com- 
plexion, the hair, &c. Color is, with some, the chief test, beginning 
with what is called white and deepening in shade through yellow 
and olive to ebony and jet. Whatever the test is, the white man is 
acknowledged to stand at the head of the series, and the negro and 
kindred castes at the bottom. As our present business is with these 
two, there is no need to refer to the intermediate ones. While phy- 
sical inequalities in the races are admitted and dwelt on by writers 
ou the natural history of the species, there are those who contend 
for an equality of intellect in them all. Contrary to analogy, to his- 
tory and observation, they award the same amount to the lowest and 
to the highest race, as if diversity of physical did not inevitably im- 
ply diversity of mental structure, and as if the economy of our orb 
did not require it in races as well as in individuals of every race. 
They, moreover, overlook the absolute universality of the principles 
of variety and gradation. It would be an anomaly if these did not 
pervade the mental as much as the bodily formations of men, and 
not merely the races as a whole, but each race in itself. It is in- 
conceivable how the extreme diversities of labor required of our 
own race, could be carried on harmoniously, or at all, with unifor- 
mity or equality of intellect, or of intellectual capacity. The dis- 
tinguishing feature of the negro race is its mental inferiority, and 
hence its unbroken association with barbarism. Individual excep- 
tions affect not the law, except to confirm it. Were the negro not 
intellectually below the white man, it would be impossible to enslave 
him. The origin of power is in the mind, not in the body. 

It is a cruel satire on the negro race to assert that they are equal* 
to the highest in intellect, and consequently in capacity for improve- 



12 ON SLAVERY IRRESPECTIVE OF 

merit. If they had the power of progress given them what have 

they done with it, since through the lapse of ages they have been 

and still are immersed in barbarism. The blame, if anywhere, is 

v with ourselves. They are waiting for the strong race to help them up. 

The mission of the white race is to extend civilization over the 
— earth. That is, to extend to the other races its own achievements 
in arts, manufactures and commerce, that they may become active 
partners in the business and sharers of the profits. In order to do 
this, appropriate portions of the work must be performed by them. 
In the case of tropical and semi-tropical regions there can be no 
doubt about this. To reclaim them, the labor of negroes is indis- 
pensable, and hence it would seem that they must do the work vol- 
untarily, or involuntarily, since they, and they only, are specially 
constituted by nature to do it. 

Those that deny normal inequalities in the races, must admit that 
there exist ordinances associated with climate, which exercise a 
controlling influence on human as well as on animal labor, and that 
there is no ignoring the fact of the past and the present predomi- 
nance of the white race — that it is the Leader of the rest, and that 
among the latter are tribes peculiarly fitted, by low organizations, 
for the lowest kind of labor ; in consequence of which they have 
been subjected to it, right or wrong, from the earliest times. Then 
the other alleged fact, that the Pioneer-race cannot carry civilization 
over tropical and equatorial regions without the aid of blacks ; and 
though this does not necessarily imply the enslavement of colored 
laborers, it is contended that, if the richest portions of the earth 
are to be reclaimed from primitive wildness, they must do the 
work. 

It does not follow from this subordination of one race to another, 
that Nature sanctions our prevailing slave systems. Her code is 
very different to most of them. There can be nothing harsh or in- 
human in it. It is doubtful if it contains the word ' slave ' — cer- 
tainly not the popular idea and practices connected with it. 

As the palm-tree cannot flourish in high latitudes nor the fir-tree 



ITS POLITICAL AND MORAL RELATIONS. 13 

in low ones, so by a general law, black races deteriorate in vivacity 
and vigor as they recede from the tropics, while the physical and 
mental energies of white men diminish as they penetrate them. 
There can be no interchanging or intermixing the fauna and flora of 
hot and cold climates without dwarfing both. Nature has therefore 
ordained a dividing line, or lines, between white and black labor 
which cannot be ignored with impunity, whether to balance power 
between States, or for any political purpose whatever. As when 
two confluent rivers join, or where the edges of the hot gulf stream 
touch the cold Atlantic, whirls and eddies cross and recross the 
line of separation without displacing it, so local agitations will, here 
and there, drive negro labor over its natural boundaries, but cannot 
keep it from returning. 

Without presuming to indicate the line (which can hardly coincide 
with any one parallel of latitude) it certainly is improperly invaded 
where the dark children of the sun are poured into the special homes 
of the white race. Wherever this has taken place the penalty has 
been enforced, and though pride may for a while be blind to its ef- 
fects, it is always evinced in the absence of progress, the universal 
and everlasting test of degeneracy. 

While there are those who from the conviction of the heart rather 
as we think, than of the understanding, denounce negro thraldom 
in toto, there are champions of it, who apparently more from the 
impulse of the passions than of the judgment, insist on their right 
to take it as far North as they please. Surely, the ecpuatorial, tropi- 
cal and semi-tropical regions ought to suffice for it. Nature has or- 
dained it to be confined within them, and they who force it beyond 
them, can only do so with loss. You may attempt, says the proverb, 
to drive away Nature by violence, but she is sure to return. 

The doctrine that upholds negro slavery, irrespective of geogra-^ 
phical limits, has recently sprung up, and has led to marked changes 
of sentiment in living politicians. But a few years ago, some of 
Virginia's chief sons maintained that she could never be in vigor- 
ous health till she got rid of, what they called, ' the black vomit,' 



14 ON SLAVERY IRRESPECTIVE OF 

and now her welfare is made to depend on it. Without it she will 
die ! The former sentiment coincided with that of Washington, 
Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Madison and other natives of the State, 
that slavery in it was a wrong to the enslaved, a peril and mischief 
to the enslavers, and a blight to the community. But they are 
said to have been mistaken because they lived and died before the 
subject had been thoroughly discussed in view of Scripture and 
reason. 

The error lies in the unlimited application of • the principle, as if 
that which is true in the abstract must be practically so in all 
places and under all circumstances. By the same rule negro sla 
very may be as strongly justified by reason in Greenland as in 
Louisiana, and by Scripture in Lapland as in Brazil. The great 
men just named formed their conclusions from long experience as 
planters and slave-holders, and from their knowledge of the com- 
parative value of white and black labor in their native clime. We 
cannot but believe that their opinion will be found fully sanctioned 
by Nature, and that ere another generation passes away, in obedience 
to a higher law than any in their statute book, her people will de- 
clare her a free State ; as other States have unwittingly obeyed it 
before them. 

It is a weak point in the slaveholder's code, to claim a right to 
carry the system deep into the temperate zones, since their occu- 
pants have an equal right, at least, to say they shall not ; otherwise, 
it would depend on the will of the former whether any part of the 
earth shall be reserved for white labor — that is, for the perfect de- 
velopment of the white race. 

It was therefore a grave political error to break down the Mis- 
souri Compromise Line, and it is perhaps an equally grave one to 
delay its restoration, or the adoption of another. Were Southerners 
to succeed in forcing slavery over it, the recoil would inevitably 
push the line further South ; for there is an influence at work in 
this matter that no legislation can arrest. 

Nature and sound policy are never at variance ; and we may as 



ITS POLITICAL AND MOKAL RELATIONS. 15 

well attempt to drink up the sea as to succeed in opposition to her. 
All the troubles in the world arise from fighting against her. There 
are no natural evils in reality. It is blasphemy to make the asser- 
tion. In few things does man play the fool more egregiously. We 
abuse Nature's gifts and then call them evils. 

The subordination of one race to another is irrespective of the 
modes in which it may be enforced. Men violate Nature's statutes 
as they violate their own, but do not thereby abrogate them. Harsh 
and mild treatment of slaves, arising from diverse dispositions of 
masters, are moral questions that no more affect the principle than 
parental severity affects that of filial obedience, or cruelty to ani- 
mals our dominion over them. Hence, if those who oppose negro 
vassalage per se hope to destroy it in its abuses, they must be disap- 
pointed. Every principle in physics and ethics has been profaned, 
and some to a greater extension of human suffering than in negro 
servitude. Forces from the expansion of airs are probably ordained 
to be the chief among the agents of progress through all coming 
ages — Nature's greatest gifts to our species — and one has been 
prostituted to the destruction of life surpassingly appalling, and 
still is so with increasing effect. Society itself is a divine institu- 
tion, but who would destroy it to get rid of evils incident to it ? 
The laws of nature are necessarily independent of moral laws. 

The subordination of the lowest race, being a principle of nature, 
is not amenable to human jurisdiction, but the abuses of it, by slave 
owners and traders, are human acts, which human laws can reach 
and correct. ^ 

There is no isolating any of the races. They are members of one 
family, bound inseparably together in one concern, and moving to a 
common destiny. The negro is as necessary to complete the series 
as the white man. We cannot fulfill the charge given to us with- 
out his assistance, nor can he do without us. We originate, he imi- 
tates. We excel in one and he in the other. He is not to be treated 
as if the characteristic element of progress was not in him. In this 
respect, and others, he differs from us only in degree. With him 



16 ON SLAVERY IRRESPECTIVE OF 

the germ is slower in its growth. The development of high intel- 
lectual endowments is retarded, thathe may contribute labor incom- 
patible with them. 

Conversation between individuals stimulates thought, elicits new 
ideas, and inspires fresh aims. This principle of reciprocal rela- 
tion pervades every division and sub-division of the whole species. 
It begins with individuals and ends with the races. They are to 
act and react on each other in like manner. With them it is but 
conversation expanded. 

The races are not to commingle and be dissolved in a common 
stock. This is a corollary of the preceding. If the species was to 
be homogeneous its elements had not been dissimilar, but, as already 
intimated, not till the earth's sections become assimilated in climate 
and products, can the fundamental law which maintains variety 
throughout the living kingdom be cancelled, or ignored. Amalga- 
mation of white and colored blood is bad enough on limited scales 
were it possible to become general, the most disastrous and revolt- 
ing results would follow — an ineradicaable physical and mental lep- 
rosy would be entailed on the whole, and the beacon or standard of 
progress would vanish. For with the leading race it would be sunk 
out of sight in the mongrel and conglomerate mass. Incitements 
to progress there then could be none. All ideas of it would be 
gone. 

To promote the fusion of the highest and lowest races is an unpar- 
donable crime against the species, and treason against the Divine 
administration of the planet. Like other crimes, it carries its pun- 
ishment with it. Besides what has just been stated as a general 
result, white blood rebels in the mulatto. It resists slavery in pro- 
portion to its infusion, and is ever ready to throw off the yoke under 
the most desperate circumstances. It engenders the fiercest feel- 
ings, and passions, that have been characterized as demoniacal. 

Races and nations must do the work assigned to them or give up 
their possessions to those that will do it. The law on this point, 
though obviously required to preserve intact the economy of the 



ITS POLITICAL AND MOKAL RELATIONS. 17 

planet, is calculated to awaken sympathy for the sufferers. The 
American race and some families of other races are examples. 

Such are some of the propositions sanctioned by nature. If any 
appear doubtful, we think that can only be due to the imperfect 
manner in which they are presented. We therefore cannot resist 
the inference that human vassalage is ascribable to a deeper agency 
than man's ; hence its universality as an element of society from 
the beginning. That it is intended to accomplish a wise and benefi- 
cent purpose, and to be mutually advantageous to enslavers and 
enslaved cannot be questioned. 

We hold then, that opponents of negro thraldom per se cannot put 
an end to it by any way they have yet proposed because, notwith- 
standing their sympathy for the oppressed, nature is against thein ; 
but that they will succeed in repelling it from chief portions of the 
temperate zones, for she is there with them. 



II. 

Admitting that much of modern slavery is an abuse of the nat- 
ural subordination of one race to another, unless nature has made 
arrangements for its ultimate abolition, we must accept the dictum 
of those who maintain that negroes are ordained to be helats for- 
ever. 

With many, we have, as already intimated, no faith in its extinc- 
tion by moral suasion or penal statutes. Both have long been tried, 
and to little purpose, except to show their insufficiency. The evil 
sought to be removed lies deeper than they can reach. They may 
palliate but cannot eradicate it. Its roots, extending to the lowest 
depths of man's selfish nature, must cease to be nourished before 
they can be torn up. As long as it is profitable, it will live. To 
kill it, something better or cheaper must take its place. 

To the statement, that before planters will give up slave labor 



18 FORCES TEOYIDED BY NATURE 

they must be provided with another, abolitionists reply, that it is 
not sought to take the slave from his work, but simply to make him 
a free workman. Be it so. That may be partially carried out. It 
cannot become general, till the moral organs everywhere prepon- 
derate over the animal ones. We think not then, were even that 
to come to pass. Still, we believe the salvation looked for by the 
friends of the negro will come, but not from the quarter whence 
they expect it. 

As we cannot reconcile the perpetuity of human degradation with 
our ideas of the Creator, whose protecting care extends overall men, 
we have no hesitation in asserting that there must be means pro- 
vided for the elevation of every race, though neither naturalists nor 
statesmen may have found out what or where they are. We assume 
a priori, the proposition, that the entire species is to be relieved 
from excessive labor in connexion with its mental and moral eleva- 
tion, and consequently that there exist agents in the natural world 
for superseding it. And, from the same consideration of the univer- 
sal parent, we moreover hold that animals enslaved by us will, by 
the same agents, be proportionally relieved. It can form no part 
of His plan that any of them should be prematurely exhausted of 
life, as too many of the noblest of our quadrupeds are — their very 
heart strings strained to breaking by work imposed on them. 

Let this be conceded, and it follows that, as we of the white race 
are placed at the head of the earth, and its vegetable, mineral and 
living products subject to us, the continuation of the harsh treat- 
ment of animal and human laborers, rests with us. This moment- 
ous responsibility is hardly suspected because, however grating to 
our pride, the most advanced of nations are only emerging from ages 
of ignorance : upon them the light of science is only beginning to 
dawn. The true relation of man to the earth, the professional char- 
acter he is to sustain upon it, the uses he is to make of its materials, 
and the great things he is to accomplish with them, have yet to be 
opened and proclaimed. 

Progress, general though not uniform, is the law of the earth's 



FOR SUPERSEDING SLAVERY. 19 

organization and our own. Her stock of materials can never be 
used up because they are being ever renewed ; and, as there are 
no limits to their properties and uses, the arts are to become indefi- 
nitely extended, and consequently corresponding additions to the 
stock of industrial labor called for. The work of the world must be 
done, and, as it is constantly swelling in amount, no deduction from 
current sources of labor can possibly be hoped for. On the con- 
trary, the general awakening of nations to new branches of indus- 
try and trade, denotes that, if fresh accessories to or substitutes for 
slave labor be not introduced, the time will come when all Africa 
will be unable to raise negroes enough to meet the demand. 

There are moral diseases which yield only to physical remedies. 
By overlooking this fact, vast amounts of philanthropy are ex- 
pended to little purpose. The trade in ardent spirits, ales, wine, 
tobacco, opium, and all kindred things has not been diminished by 
temperance crusades. When it fell off in one it rose in others, and 
such we presume, will be the result till cures are discovered in 
innoxious or less noxious stimuli. So also with Negro slavery. 
Neither it, nor its worst features, can be suppressed till other agents 
of labor are ready to take its place. 

But are there such? If the growth of society requires them, 
beyond all controversy, Yes. Whatever that calls for is attainable, 
no matter how novel or startling, or even impossible it might seem. 
Only make it fairly known and (as William Howitt has well ob- 
served) the immense mass of talent, energy, learning, and genius, 
slumbering in the great chaos of human society when quickened 
by the breath of high occasion, starts up, and is ready to carry to 
its accomplishment every mortal enterprise. So it is with the great 
agents of labor. 

There is no fear that negro servitude can be permanent in the 
temperate zones, but then can it ever be superseded within warmer 
parallels, for it is there that it is destined to be concentrated ? We 
believe it can and eventually will be, and by a class of forces which 
are now only beginning to be evolved. 



20 FORCES PROVIDED BY NATURE 

Though we do not pretend to point out in them an immediate 

cure for the evils of slavery wherever it prevails, we profess to 

indicate where the only radical, and final one is to be found. It 

has already removed some minor sores, and is a specific for the 

greatest. Of itself it requires no delay but is simply waiting for 

skill to administer it. As with other specifics the difficulty will be 

in o-ettins the world to believe in it, but that cannot be done With- 
er O ' 

out inviting public attention to it. As for indifference, opposition 
and ridicule, which novel projects are almost sure to meet with, 
they never yet prevented the success of aught that deserved it ; 
and in the present case they are lighter than air, since it is nature 
herself that is the projector. 

It was remarked on a previous page that for the work given to 
man diverse forces are provided. It is to them we are now to refer. 
They are comprised in two general divisions, Livi?ig and In- 
animate, each consisting of two distinct varieties. The first of 
human and animal forces ; the second of forces excited by nature, 
as running water, and such as are artificially awakened, as steam, 
explosive compounds, &c. 

As might have been expected, there is a regular order in the 
realization of these forces. Differing in forms, intensities, and 
applications, such only can be used as are suited to the condition 
men are in as regards mental and material progress. In the early 
stages of society the simplest only can be managed. Savages can 
do nothing with steam, or semi-savages with cognate first movers. 
It was necessary that man should begin the work with his own 
force, that by the exercise of it he might be prepared to employ 
others. 

Thus human labor preceded that of animals, their employment 
suggested the taking advantage of fluid currents, and they opened the 
way to the evolution of forces from matter at rest. Little stretch 
of thought was necessary to make an animal drag a load after him, 
or to bear another on his back; somewhat more to adapt vanes to 



FOE SUPERSEDING SLAVERY. 21 

■wind and running water, and turning to account systems of revolving 
levers, but had the motive powers stopped there, the modern world 
had not advanced beyond the ancient one. For to keep moving 
another class was indispensable, consisting of such as are not 
limited to time and place, such as man can call up for himself 
wherever and whenever he pleases, and excite, and extinguish at 
his will. 

Living motors are the poorest; insensible ones, artificially ex- 
cited, the last and the best. The former are delicate, easily de- 
ranged, require stated and oft recurring periods of rest, are limited 
in their powers of endurance, and the amount of work they can do, 
while the latter are in these several respects the reverse. With 
living forces man passes his novitiate, with these he fairly enters 
on the great work before him, no longer depending on those dis- 
closed by nature, but taught by her now to find out others for him- 
self. 

Few have yet been evolved, but judging of the rest by what two 
in their veriest infancy have done, who can anticipate the epochs 
which practical science is destined to open ! So much of living 
force has been already replaced by one of them — steam — that with 
it, the progress of civilization would not now be retarded were all 
our working animals to become extinct. It would be but the ex- 
change of one agent of labor for a better. 

It is needless to allude to motive-agents that are destined to fol- 
low steam. Some are imperfectly developed, others perhaps not 
suspected, while of those that are known, none are sufficiently sub- 
dued to be profitable, except electricity, which, as a messenger, 
transmits thought with a velocity bordering on volition, and which 
acts as a gilder and plater of the metals, a multiplier of engravings, 
medallions and the most delicate gems of ancient and modern art. 
Should it become tamed into a common working force, it will per- 
form functions for which steam is imperfectly adapted. No one 
force can do every thing. 



22 FORCES PROVIDED BY NATURE 

Is it asked — by what means are new motors to be discovered ? 
By consulting nature with whom they all are. With her fervent 
worshippers she has no secrets. With them she is as explicit on 
the development of physical power — occult and mysterious as it 
may seem — as on anything else. It is from her we learn not only 
that bodily labor is the outlay of force, but that all force is derived 
directly or indirectly from heat ; animal force just as much as any 
other. Hence it is, that whatever may be the temperature of the 
media iu which living creatures dwell, they are furnished with ap- 
paratus for generating a higher one within themselves, for the pur- 
pose of operating their organs of motion ; and, as in our motive 
engines, the heat is generated in parts specially designed for it — 
that is, the food-consuming apparatus is confined, in each species, 
to one locality, whence the force is transmitted to the colder ex- 
tremities. 

The universality of heat as the source of physical power is con- 
firmed by every natural and by every artificial motor. We know 
not one of the former which does not expire when its heat evolving 
organs have ceased to act, nor one of the latter that does not be- 
come helpless as a corpse under the like circumstances. In both 
cases the most active and powerful consume the most fuel. All 
food is fuel ; the mode of consuming it being, as might be supposed, 
different in living than in insensitive motors. Does not the engi- 
neer stop a locomotive to take in wood and water for the same 
reason that you stop to bait your horse, or to dine when the strength 
of your previous meal is expended. 

Force, then, being derived from heat, the all important inquiry 
is, What are our sources of heat ? The answer should, in some de- 
gree, make manifest the intentions of the Creator in the constitution 
and working of our orb — and it does. The chief sources are the 
earth's forests and her coal-fields. The latter are to be found in all 
lands and are utterly inexhaustible. So much so, that could the 
imagination reach a period in the future sufficiently remote to give 
time for the consumption of the present stock, another would even 



FOE SUPERSEDING SLAVERY. 23 

then have been matured. We have therefore, no room to doubt 
that this mineral is ordained to be a chief if not the chief agent of 
industrial forces ; and may we not add, through periods of time 
commensurate with those that were required for its preparation and 
stowage. 

Does not this explain to us why a succession of geological epochs 
was employed in elaborating it in various qualities, laying it up in 
separate strata, preserving it unmixed with foreign matters, and 
providing for its being pushed up within human reach as human 
wants might require it — because of its paramount importance to 
man through the whole of his career. 

The coal trade of the world is scarcely begun, but even now the 
mineral may serve to indicate the condition of nations. Great Brit- 
ain is counted the richest, and she has writers who assert that the 
true source of her wealth is her coal. It is unnecessary to say that 
compared with other coal-producing countries, she ranks the first 
in the quantity she mines. She now raises 75,000,000 of tons an- 
nually, of which about one-tenth only she exports. Her coal forma- 
tions occupy an area of 11,859 square miles. Belgium, in 1856, 
raised 8,409,330 tons. France consumed less than thirteen mil- 
lions, of which five millions were imported. Prussia raised four 
millions, Austria less than one million, and Spain, though possessing 
3,408 square miles of coal lands, raised scarcely any. 

What relation there is between the rising power of the people of 
the United States and the progress of their coal trade, may be sur- 
mised from the following table of quantities extracted, chiefly from 
the Pennsylvania mines. 

1820 (first year of mining) 365 tons. 

1825 r - - - 60,538 " 
1830 - - - 132,826 " 

1835 .--- 610,727 " 
1840 - 1,027,241 " 

1845 .... 2,143,530 " 
1850 .... 3,736,184 " 
1855 .... 7,565,980 " 



21 FORCES PROVIDED BY NATURE 

The coal crop of the United States for the year 1858 including 
bitumens and all other varieties was estimated at 14,685,820 tons. 

AVhat it has got to do on this part of the earth may be rudely 
guessed at, from the fact that while its deposits in Great Britian, 
Spain, France, and Belgium, do not exceed, in the aggregate, 
twenty thousand square miles, its area within the United States — 
of course saying nothing of Mexico on the South, and Canada and 
Nova Scotia on the North — is already estimated at two hundred 
thousand square miles. A national inheritance of inconceivable 
wealth and power. 

Of the coal deposits in Russia, Poland, Denmark and Sweden 
we know but little, and still less of those of India, China, and other 
parts of Asia, of those of Japan, New Zealand, South America, 
Africa, and Australia. 

Of the earth's cargo not more than broken samples have yet been 
withdrawn, and only a few of them. When she " breaks bulk" the 
power of the world will be recognized in coal and its science in 
iron. 

The value of the revelation — that all forces are resolvable into 
inorganic elements and obtainable in unlimited quanities — who can 
estimate! To it is to be ascribed the start which civilization has 
taken in the present century, and to it primarily will be due all 
future progress. It has opened to our species a series of acquisitions 
whose benefits no language can over-rate. It shows us that we have 
the power and the means of doing the world's work, without oppres- 
sing our own species or the tribes below us, since the demands for in- 
dustrial labor, however great, are to be met in all coming times, not 
by quivering flesh and fibre, but by insensible substances — by the 
cheapest and most common — peat, turf, coal, wood and other 
fuels. But for this wonderful a«id most beneficent provision 
negroes would be captured and sold in greater numbers than ever. 
There would be no end to their enthralment. 
Not only does the ultimate extinction of human slavery depend 



FOR SUPERSEDING SLAVERY. 25 

on it, but the complete subjugation of the earth and the application of 
all its resources to human happiness. 

To make manifest this glorious truth to other races is among the 
£:reat duties of the leading race. 

We perceive then that Nature, so much ignored on account of 
her slow and silent movements, has a potent voice in this matter of 
Slavery, and speaks on it, as she has often spoken, with more effect 
from the Factory than from the Halls of Legislation. Notwith- 
standing our political and civil machinery, it is she that shapes our 
ends, bend and rough-hew them as we will. Whatever other rem- 
edies may be prescribed, it will be found that as one body can only 
be moved by another, an old motor can only be displaced by a new 
one, equally effective and economical. 

For every ill there is a remedy, but it does not always come 
from the quarter expected. The great social changes wrought in 
modern times is not the result of the sagacity and movements of 
statesmen — not a fraction of them. Legislators had no more to do 
with starting them than with the production of rain or snow. They 
knew not the cause till the effects loomed up before them, and then 
it seemed inexplicable from its apparent insignificance. And what 
is it that has made itself felt so beneficially over every part of the 
civilized world ? Humiliating to the pride and power of rulers, it 
was nothing more than a common property of a common substance, 
turned to a new purpose — the simple expansion of aqueous vapor. 

From the brevity of life, we are naturally impatient under Polit- 
ical pressures, and seek their immediate removal, but the habits of 
races and nations, as respects labor, are not to be changed in a day. 
Thoroughly to employ one common force, and successfully intro- 
duce another, has comprised periods so great as can only be counted 
in the life of the species. What ages transpired before the white 
man enslaved black ones, we know not, nor how many intervened 
before quadrupeds were tamed and made to labor for him, nor how 
vast the intervals before wind and moving water were pressed into 
his service. But this we know, that we live in a transition age — 



26 FORCES PROVIDED BY NATURE 

at the beginning of an epoch that will be ever memorable for the 
evolution of productive forces from inert matter — of forces designed 
to meet deficiencies of preceding ones, and by their extension to 
diverse departments of labor, gradually to contract the areas and 
extinguish the evils of slavery. 

As every one knows, the first of these yet mastered is steam. It 
is unnecessary to detail here what social, civil, and even mental 
and moral results it has brought forth in little more than half a 
century, nor with what accelerated power it is adding to them. 
There is scarcely a department of the arts into which it has not been 
introduced, and positively not one in which its influence is not 
felt. It has changed the policy of nations, and is stimulating, 
beyond all precedent, their growth and prosperity. The hoisting 
power for bringing up the materials stored in the earth's cellars, 
and the chief working agent on her surface, its labors are, appar- 
ently, to be interminable, if not illimitable. It is now doing three, 
if not four, times more work than the manual force of the whole 
human family can do ; and, in a century or two, will, in all proba- 
bility, be doing a hundred times more. Fresh applications of it are 
being constantly projected. It has passed from the factory into 
the highways ; and, at the present writing, attempts are making to 
take it into the prairies — to make it a general field-laborer — to plow 
and sow, as well as thresh, and bolt, and grind. It already gins 
cotton, besides spinning and weaving it ; nor is there any insuper- 
able obstacle to its planting, and hoeing, and picking it, or some- 
thing equivalent to picking it. It expresses the juice from the 
sugar-cane ; why not cultivate and reap it ? The cereals, also, as 
well as the ordinary grasses ? Kindred difficulties now overcome, 
appeared equally serious before they were conquered. Nothing is 
wanting but a proper combination of mechanical skill ; and, when 
that is realized, slavery dies, and dies amid the hosannas of both 
pro and anti-slavery men. 

Let us repeat. The proposition is, that unlimited amounts of 
force are to be drawn out of inert matter, and that mechanical ar- 



FOE SUPERSEDING SLAVERY. 27 

rangenients for applying them to the exhaustive labors of slaves, 
are alone wanting to put an end to the slave trade. This is Na- 
ture's plan, and therefore effectual, without being violent; mild, 
progressive, and conservative, injurious to no class, but advanta- 
geous to all interests. In it, the morals of slavery are reversed. 
The forces are without feeling, and the greater amount of work got 
out of them, the nearer we fulfil the intentions of the Creator res- 
pecting them. Human labor becomes improved in its character, 
and reduced in intensity or amount to what is essential to bodily 
health and mental vigor. Associated with intelligence, it becomes 
employed in the direction of other forces. The slave becomes an 
overseer. 

There is then hope for the negro. His race is no't destined to re- 
main uninformed serfs. It is well to know that the day of his re- 
demption will come, and better still, that it lies within our power to 
accelerate its coming ; for though the Creator has provided the 
means, their employment is left to ourselves. Only, let us not 
complain that, that which He, for the wisest purposes and the best 
interests of our species, has made progressive, is not instantaneous. 

Races and nations are what their agents of labor make them. — 
Savages are such because they use no power but their own, while 
the social, mental and moral habits improve as other forces are 
called in. The ancient world arrived at certain stages of progress 
and then stopped, because the forces in use could carry it no fur- 
ther. Neither the wisdom of Egypt, philosophy of India, ingenuity 
of Greece, nor the energy of Rome could urge it onward. In this 
respect the morals of Confucius, the teachings of Pythagoras, and 
the inspirations of the prophets alike failed. 

An advance has now taken place, exceeding all previous move- 
ments, and why ? Because the impulse has come from forces sur- 
passing in energy and effect the old ones ; and to them the improved 
and improving condition of the world, morally as well as physically, 
is due. Although all the gifts of nature and art are the products of 
physical forces, mechanical science is not yet recognized as the 



28 FORCES PROVIDED BY NATURE 

great thing that it is. The principle or passion that inclines each 
class to magnify its importance may have its uses, but statesmen, 
lawyers, theologians, physicians, philosophers, merchants, farmers 
and others are unwittingly being borne forward as one body by 
engineers. 

The fundamental law by which man rises in the scale of being as 
he adds to his stock of forces has not yet presented itself in its full 
bearings, to writers on either ethics or physics. They admit force, 
in a general way, to be of importance, but they treat it as an adjunct, 
or an ordinary element, rather than the principal one of human ele- 
vation. If there were a deep conviction that it is the essence of 
material acquisitions — that all others are products of it — would 
there not be more said and written about it ? How few are they 
who teach that the forces constitute the acts in the world's great 
drama, and their applications the scenes into which the acts are di- 
vided — that they expand as human wants expand, and are ordained 
to appear in a natural sequence, by which each opens the way for its 
successor — that there is progress in the forces as well as in the 
products of the forces. 

But if new forces are to supersede negro labor, ivhere are they 
first to be drilled into it ? The world at large is far from being 
prepared for the change, and may not be for ages, still there are 
places that seem nearly if not quite ready for it, and of them our 
own country is the most promising. The conflicts of opinion on 
slavery that have agitated and keep agitating the Union tend, 'and 
are perhaps necessary, to clear the way for it. Here are the induce- 
ments, the means and the men — the science and the skill — to devise 
the plans, with the best of opportunities to improve and mature them. 
It is of course admitted that a change in old established systems of 
labor can only be a matter of time, but it has begun with us. It 
has even progressed so far as to relieve white and black men from 
some of the severest of predial labors. 

Doubtless there are those who will deride the proposed solution 
of the great social and political problem as visionary ; but of the 



FOR SUPERSEDING SLAVERY. 29 

marked changes that have, within half a century, come over the 
world which did they perceive ere they saw and felt it in its effects. 
Not a few will question the practicability of applying portable ex- 
pansive forces to the extent advocated. Alleged ' difficulties ' will 
make them hesitate. Difficulties ! Why the greatest are not to be 
compared to many that have been overcome in our times, in gas- 
lighting, railroads, steamships and carriages, steam presses, ploughs, 
reapers and looms, in the telegraph, tubular bridges, photography 
and other matters, down to the sewing machine. Difficulties ! — 
Why, nothing great can be produced without thorn. Not even great 
men. Tell practical men of high and firm purpose, that progress is 
about ended in the substitution of inorganic forces for muscular 
power and they will laugh you to scorn. They will tell you, and 
tell you truly, that the great work is barely begun. 

It may be objected that the substitution implies a change for 
which society in slave States is not prepared and an advance in the 
arts not attained. Suppose this conceded, is it less a duty to look 
forward on this subject than on others less important ? When 
streaks of dawn break through the monotony of a long night of 
gloom, we know sun-rise is near ; and shall we not hail as harbin- 
gers of day discoveries that have dispersed clouds which for ages 
have. hung over the social sky. 

Others again may think the change involves not only a ' higher 
law' but anticipates the highest and last one. They are right. 
Wherever slavery is rendered commercially impossible by the 
superior economy and efficiency of inanimate forces, there the 
ultimate law has begun to prevail. But then, say they, when once 
we enter upon such a state of things progress must be at an end. 
Assuredly not. It would be but the commencement of a series of 
developments that require an eternity to perfect and exhaust. As 
regards the Day of Science and Discovery, whatever self-love may 
suggest to the contrary, we only live in the first blush of the 
morning. 

Most certain it is that no amount of living power can meet the 



30 FOKCES PROVIDED BY NATURE 

demand for productive labor which science and the arts now require, 
nor can the earth raise slaves enough to meet incoming requisitions. 
The forces referred to, can alone do that. May we not then sug- 
gest to friends of the negro the formation of Societies for promoting 
the application of inanimate forces to the raising and reaping staple 
products of tropical and semi-tropical regions. There would be 
nothiug impracticable in the project, since it is only to extend to 
the field a part of what has already been effected in the factory. 
And surely, discussion and the offer of suitable premiums, would 
tend to hasten the accomplishment of an object honorable to man in 
his highest estate. It is impossible to name a project in which 
good men of all creeds, classes, and professions can more hopefully 
unite to further the best interests of humanity than this ; or one by 
which governments can make larger amends for the miseries that 
have flowed from the dissipation of wealth and destruction of life 
in wars. 

Is there any risk in asserting, that if a moiety of the influence 
and money expended by England and America during the last ten 
years for suppressing the Slave Trade, had been devoted to the 
extension of inorganic forces to slave labor, the market prices of 
negroes in the United States had now been reduced to African 
standards, and a fruitful element of National strife rendered in- 
noxious, if not annihilated ? 

As respects emancipation, nature's policy is different from ours. 
With her, release from servile toil is obtained, not by getting rid 
of the work but by doing more of it and doing it better. Any sys- 
tem different from this she ignores. But though ' more work ' is 
her motto, there is nothing cruel or unkind in it, but the contrary, 
since the requisite forces are provided. In them we have her par- 
able of the Talents. Labor — free, cheerful, enlightened labor is 
forever to be the root and spring of human advancement. One 
race cannot do the work of another. The highest must do its own 
to maintain its position, and hence it is that in no factory is the 
purport of assembling employes more clearly implied or expressed 



FOR SUPERSEDING SLAVERY. 31 

than by nature in this mundane establishment. ' Work,' ' work,' is 
labeled on every department. All her rules and regulations are 
based upon it, nor will she listen a moment to dispensing with it, 
or to its slightest diminution — no, not to abate human suffering. 
' Work ' then is never to cease, but to swell until all the earth's 
forces are employed in improving the character and condition of 
every race ; how beautiful the system, and benign, that accomplishes 
this with diminished demands on human bones and muscles by call- 
ing into activity the noble forces of the mind — a system which 
acknowledges no limits to labor saving devices, to the refinements 
of labor, nor to the intellectual growth of the laborers. 

For progress, untrammeled and unbounded power is required,, 
and we may have it in the inorganic forces. As they become mul- \ 
tipliad, slaves will disappear from our plantations, for a piece of 
fuel costing less than the daily food of a negro will do more work 
in a day than several negroes. And as all people will ultimately 
have them, inducements to enslave negroes will finally pass away. 
The honorable task of introducing them to our species has been 
assigned to our race. Through them we are to direct the onward 
movements of the world. Let us, therefore, cast off dependence on / 
old routines of labor and cherish the increase of laborers whose 
nerves and sinews are of iron. To skill and perseverance there is 
nothing impossible in this, and glory enough awaits those who take 
the lead in it. 

Christians in theory, we are too often pagans in practice. Like 
him who cried on a Glod to drag his wagon out of the mire, we in- 
voke the spiritual to bring about that which must come from the 
material. Like him we find it easier to believe than to labor, and 
like him we are doomed to experience that faith without works is 
nought. An increase of labor, or agents of labor will forever be in- 
dispensable to progressive civilization, and for it recourse must be 
had, not to ethical but to mechanical science ; to nature not to 
Grace. Religion and morals have their appropiiate spheres of 
action. They foster the virtues, but what virtue can harden steel, 



32 FORCES PROVIDED BY NATURE, ETC. 

increase the effect of a reaper, diminish friction, or add to the speed 
of a steamer ? They enforce industry but touch not the forces of 
industry. They may soften the hearts of task-masters, but to rely 
on them to relieve groaning masses from ' hard bondage in mortar 
and bricks, and all manner of service in the field ' is to indulge in 
desperate and hopeless expectations. 

Let those then, who afflict themselves and harass others because of 
an evil they cannot remove, and whose end they see not, enlarge the 
circles of their thoughts and consider it in the light here contemp- 
lated, and they will no longer be in doubt of what is ordained to 
come to pass. They will learn what the means provided by nature 
for its extinction are, and become persuaded that without them, no 
amount of moral power can bring about what they desire. They 
will look out for ' signs ' of emancipation different from those they 
have been accustomed to dwell on, and acknowledge the agency of 
physical science to hasten its approach — and in so doing they will 
find themselves co-workers with nature, and therefore with God. 



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